And he didn’t get up.
* * *
Toby
I’d never understood what it meant to scream with no sound until I saw Joe broken on the ground. The man who’d picked me up from a dusty lane and given me a life to be proud of.Eight yearsafter he’d sworn to me he’d never be broken again.
I threw myself over the fence and sprinted the short distance to where Joe had landed. Inexplicably, Cole was already there, blood coating his elegant hands as he shielded Joe from my view. “Get the horse before he comes back and tramples us.”
Horrible déjà vu swept over me. I knew how this went.
Dread gripped my heart.
I spun away, searching for Shadow.
He was on the other side of the field, slowing his pace as the mares next door caught his attention. I circled him, fighting for the calmness I’d need to secure him and take him in. Shadow had learned all our weaknesses. He knew I’d panic and let him charge past me, as much as he knew Joe would fight him at every turn, but I couldn’t let that happen. If he got past me unchecked, there was every chance he’d thunder down on Cole and Joe and there’d be more blood on the ground.
Joe’s blood.
Cole’s blood.
I forced myself to breathe slowly, the way Cole had taught me every time my anticipation at seeing him naked had got the better of me. My heart still pounded, thudding in my ears loud enough to make me dizzy, but I ignored it. I shut the world out, pushing everything—even him—from my mind.
Focused on Shadow, I ambled towards him, my hands at my sides, close to my pockets so he’d suspect I had treats. I hummed a nonsense tune and didn’t meet his gaze, a method that had failed me more times than I could count, but it was all I had.
Shadow paid me no notice. I’d been counting on that, though, and I slipped past him to the old gate we rarely used, thankful the rusted padlock had been on my to-do list forever and I still hadn’t got round to replacing it.
It fell apart in my hands. The noise stirred Shadow enough to investigate, and I opened the gate for him, praying he’d find me uninteresting enough to stroll on by. But I’d never been religious enough for the man in the sky to hear me. Shadow stopped halfway through the gate, head in one field, his stubborn arse in the other.
Fear-laced frustration threatened the tenuous hold I had on my composure. Any other horse I might’ve shouldered on through, but not Shadow. He’d boot me in the head before he’d let me manhandle him. I just had to wait.
His bulk blocked my view of the field. Wild thoughts bombarded me as he sniffed every inch of the gate. Harry had gone to Truro for the day. Who was going to call him and tell him Joe was dead? That Shadow had finished what he’d started eight years ago when Harry had been the one to scrape Joe from the grass and carry him to safety?
I’d been useless then too. Shadow had known it then, and he knew it now, but just when I thought I’d have to take my chances and leave him to it, he gave a quiet sigh and meandered through the gate.
I moved like a snake to shut it behind him. The padlock was beyond repair, but the bolt held. I slid it into place, then took off across the field. I didn’t dare look up until I got to the place where I’d left Cole and Joe, but as I reached the spot, only blood-stained grass greeted me.
Cole and Joe were gone.
21
Cole
I stood beside Joe, rubbing his back as he caught the breath Shadow’s bad temper had knocked from him. Blood was still oozing from the gash on his scalp, but it was finally slowing enough for me to get a proper look at it. “Looks worse than it is. You might get away with taping it.”
Joe blew out a shaky breath and pointed to the kitchen sink. “Can you do it? Rhys has an entire hospital stashed under there.”
“Are you sure? It’s been a long time since I last did anything like that.”
“Is that what you’d say if I was Ella?”
“If you were my kid, I’d send you back for a refund.”
Joe snorted, and colour began to return to his face. “Seriously. Under the sink. I need to be in one piece before Harry gets home or he’ll get ragged.”
Harry was going to be upset anyway if he came home before the puddles of blood had been scrubbed from the floor, but I took Joe at his word and moved to the sink. In the cupboard beneath, I found an Aladdin’s cave of first aid equipment, everything I needed and more. I grabbed a handful and straightened up, scanning the yard through the window for any sign of Toby. Leaving him in the field with the crazy horse had just about killed me, even with Joe’s gasped-out assurances that he’d be okay.
“Toby can handle himself. It’s me that doesn’t know when to stop.”